Monday, December 5, 2011

A Grand Design

Earthship. Unfortunately the name makes them sound very space age, when in reality they are not. I prefer the name Groundhouse - a home which is 'aligned with nature in all three aspects of design: architecture, systems and materials'. A house which is low cost, low carbon and completely self sustainable. In the age of being environmentally friendly, these houses beat them all by being built out of old car tyres and other recycled materials.From an aesthetic point of view Earthships/Groundhouses get a bad rap for not looking ‘pretty’. I, however don't put that down to a fault in materials, but rather a lack of good design taste by the individual building the house. The Groundhouse pictured above was featured on an episode of Grand Designs and is one of the best I've seen. I have been completely inspired to consider this way of building one day in the future.

New Zealand has it very own Earthship in the mighty Waikato, and through a bit of research there are many Kiwis out there interested in this style of building.